The Blog

This morning the four candidates for the City Commission Seat #5 joined members of the Greater Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce for a forum where they answered a series of questions prepared by the Government & Legislative Affairs committee and questions from the audience. This forum was once again sponsored by Chamber member Sharit, Bunn & Chilton, P.A. and moderated by firm partner Bob Stambaugh. Click below to watch the Facebook Live feed from this morning's event.

The candidates for Seat #5 include JoNathan "Joey Hilliard, James Hogan, Steven Hunnicutt and James "JP" Powell. Seat #4 is also up for election, however Commissioner Brad Dantzler is running unopposed.

The questions below are just sampling of those discussed this morning. Watch the full video for more extensive answers and insight.

Service on the Commission necessarily requires personal sacrifice of various kinds. In light of that, what particular reasons do you have for wanting to serve and what, if any, specific causes or issues would you want to advance if elected?

Several years ago a group of citizens were brought together by the City’s administration to evaluate how the City could be more efficient and effective. Their #1 recommendation was for the City to develop an overall strategic plan similar to that of the Police Department. The Commission did review consultants but then halted the process. Do you feel the City Commission and City administration have a plan for the future? Do you feel like the City government needs a formal strategic plan?

What personal or work experience do you feel qualifies you to represent citizens on the City Commission and how does this differentiate you from the other commissioners or candidates?

What do you think are the greatest opportunities facing Winter Haven?

What do you think are the greatest challenges facing Winter Haven and what are your suggestions to fix or improve these issues?

On the 2017 Chamber member survey they felt that traffic was the number one challenge facing our community. What do you think needs to be done about the traffic and how would you tackle that issue?

Our members also answered that a negative and/or ineffective City Commission was a challenge that we faced. If you dive deeper into comments, they felt the negative tone/comments from the commission was not beneficial or even matched what is happening in the outside world. How would you address this?

One of Winter Haven’s shining achievements over the past 25 years is the rejuvenation of its Core Downtown which was accomplished through the joint efforts of the City (in large part with Downtown CRA funds), private investment that followed the public investment, Main Street and other organizations. The overall community and economic benefits that spin out of our thriving Core Downtown inure to the entire City and all of its residents. The achievements of the Core Downtown notwithstanding, there are other parts of the City which have generally declined over the past 25 years. Do you believe that the City’s attention is needed in these other areas and, if so, what recommendations do you have regarding what the City could do to address them? ​

There were many other questions asked from the audience's notecards as well. Listen to the full video for the candidates answers.